mookeighana

If WWE can't portray itself as a company that avoids over-promising and under-delivering to investors, it hurts their standing. They're going to have a hard time attracting talented professionals to lead important company projects (they still need to replace Singerman leading the WWE Network and Perkins Miller leading the Digital Media division) and they're going to have a hard to giving out bonuses to top talent to retain them (stock options are a lot more valuable at $30/share than $10/share). Also, it's going to make it tougher for the company to cut good deals with companies. This global WWE Network launch is no small feat and going to require a lot of negotiations on their part and possibly some strategic partnerships with the MVPDs. Vince outright admitted that launching the domestic WWE Network hurt their standing in the NBCU deal, and while they keep promising increase for the India TV rights, this latest failure could be a wakeup call that WWE may have overplayed their hand seriously when it comes to what they can demand for television rights. Ultimately, it puts more pressure on the company to make the WWE Network profitable, and also to cut costs in other divisions - particularly television. Ultimately, the company isn't going to fail or anything dire like that, but this has been their moment in the sun and they dropped the ball. I heard it again and again as analysts argued veraciously with me. They said: a) international deals appeared to be many multiples at previous rate, content is king and wwe owns all of their own content and produces it year round, c) live sports/DVR-proof entertainment = big money, long-term deals. But in the end, the 50% increase from NBCU isn't the ballpark of what was expected. The loss of credibility is going to hurt WWE. I don't believe it'll be as bad in the "mainstream" world - look at the great divide in coverage between how the 667,287 number was interpreted by Wall Street (stock drop) and interpreted by the Media (well on their way to a million in just 42 days!). It's been a tough place. The WWE Stock looked hot and now it's a flop. The WWE Network looked like a huge innovative step forward and now it looks like an expensive proposition with an uncertain future. The WWE TV Deals were supposed to provide the cushion so they wouldn't have a bad year. At the same time, WWE is way too big to murdered by a single lousy year. It's controlled by the McMahon family and that's not going to change. But, with attendance trends flat (and international attendance dropping YOY for several years), I would be concerned that wrestling doesn't look hot and the fundamentals aren't looking amazing. Maybe that's too doom & gloom, but I think credibility mattered to WWE and this just demonstrates that they won't be getting advertising rates commensurate with their audience size in the near future.

Thank Goodness - WWE just announced they'd host a conference call on Monday: A little late, but better than nothing.

How can they produce more content than they already do?? Back in 2004 they used to have 7 hours of weekly content (Raw, Smackdown, Heat, Velocity, Confidential) along with the syndicated shows (Afterburn, Bottom Line, Experience). Now, they have 5 hours airing (Raw, Smackdown) plus an hour taped (Total Divas) plus international shows (Superstars, Main Event) and then taped content (NXT) and the recap shows.

Here's my latest piece about the leadup, the results and the fallout of the TV Deal: http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwes-new-tv-deal-know.php

I've seen these charts for beer drinkers and other subjects. I think they're cross-referencing voter profiles by race/income level with the sports survey and drawing their conclusions from that. I don't believe they actually asked these questions directly at all. As for the original research, see: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/04/22/In-Depth/Fight-fan-avidity.aspx

Basically, as far as I can tell, people are looking at the "business outlook" and doing the math as such: +$92M = new deals. That breaks out as: +$20M from UK deal ($10M tripled) +$3M from Thailand deal ($500k increase 7x) +$12M projected India deal (double the $12M) That leaves ~$57M for the US deal. The Raw/Smackdown was around $90M, so new TV rights would be around $140-$150M for Raw & Smackdown. That's about 60% increase. Now, there's the whole issue that the first two parts of the WWE chart seem to just be domestic numbers and then suddenly it jumps to worldwide and/or they're carefully cherry-picking TV shows to include/exclude (for instance, we've heard from WWE that the $200M does NOT include Total Divas), but the bottom line is that they didn't double domestic TV rights. In fact, they came in right near where some people were projecting -- I ran a poll at F4W and that was basically the weighted result. I wrote a piece on Wednesday that guessed that "the new deal would start at $160M/year". But some people had sky-high expectations. Ironically, the very first analyst I ever spoke with told me that based on his analysis of ad rates, he couldn't fathom why NBCU would ever pay more than $160M-$180M. That's been the artificial ceiling I've shared with people, and it looks like he was right.

Latest rumor mill: CNBC: WWE close to pinning down a new deal with NBCU Variety: WWE Near New Deal to Keep ‘Raw,’ ‘SmackDown’ on USA Network, Syfy (EXCLUSIVE) It's not a signed deal, but it appears they've agreed in principle to stay with NBCU. Rebroadcast rights are a sticking point and terms aren't yet known. The "double" idea is being floated (as Wall Street Analysts), but there's a lot of wiggle rumor in that statement.

My newest piece: Surprisingly Large MLS Deal Fuels Speculation On WWE TV Rights http://whatculture.com/wwe/surprisingly-large-mls-deal-fuels-speculation-wwe-tv-rights.php

You're right. I was just looking at the article again and realized that there was a lot less games than I originally said. So, they averaged 166,000/game for 2013 over 61 games. The new deal is for $75M for 68 games (mentions both ESPN and Fox get at least 34 exclusive games), so that works out to $1.103M/game. Thus, per viewer that would be like $6.64/viewer - 38% higher than I originally guessed.

So, doing similar math to JDW: In 2013, the 102 games averaged about 153,559 viewers/game. With $75M/year and 102 games, that works out to spending about $735,294 per game. And assuming same number of viewers, that would be about $4.79/viewer. Let's say Raw averages 4M and Smackdown averages 2.75M. That means the 104 episodes of Raw+Smackdown averaged about 3.375M viewers/show. With $180M/year and 104 shows, that works out to spend about $1.731M per show. And assuming same number of viewers, that would be about $0.51/viewer. So, a wrestling fan would be worth about a tenth of a soccer fan. I cannot fathom that WWE is walking away with a $1.8B/year contract, so it's clear that no matter what happens, there's going to be a huge discrepancy. John is right that $180M would be seen as tiny compared to what MLS just got.

I've took a poll over at F4W. Only 55 responses, so it's hardly a big sample size, but the results were interesting to me: Average: $157M to $200M = $178M.

Loved reading this. Great job, and really interesting. I knew about the short-lived Snowman in Mid-South 1985 but I was clueless about his USWA run.

Regarding the 3-hours, I expect Raw to stay that way for awhile. For one thing, haven't they essentially sold the international deals on the premise of 3 hour raws? Secondly, WWE doesn't really care about the creativity hit when you offset it with pure, hard cash. They don't want to be taking less money just to make their lives easier. Thirdly, if they did resign with NBCU, USA was at the forefront of pushing the three-hour Raws, so it's not going away anytime soon - especially when the first hour isn't dying a terrible death.

The conference call pretty much made it clear it's not a one-time thing. They signed a worse deal than they had before. Now, they only hit higher royalty rates when they achieve higher volumes of sales. So, it's possible that the money that wrestlers don't see in Q1 will come in during later quarters, but I am skeptical. Of the $10M drop, $8M was basically a like-to-like comparison with last year (they got a $2M settlement last year that was a one-time thing which they don't have the books this year; and I'm not even sure if any of that money would have been distributed to the wrestlers).

I wrote up all of my latest TV Rights thoughts here: "WWE Investors Remain Confused Over Domestic TV Rights Negotiation Delays" - my thoughts on the TV Rights That's Domestic/International and Advertising TV Rights 1999-2013 (I've normalized the WWE Fiscal years into calendar years using MATH~!). The fundamental difference between WWE and Live Sports was encapuslated in two pieces: * Ad Age: WWE Will Struggle to Position Itself as Live Sports LA Times wrote: Basically, without the car & beer commercials, WWE generates far lower ad rates than other live sports programming. So, they have a few choices - find a way to generate higher advertising revenue (perhaps the plan from NBCU to cross-sell advertising by demographic across sister networks instead of thematic material), use the halo effect of WWE to prop up other shows (i.e. could WWE help Bellator or UFC), or use the halo effect of WWE to prop up the entire network overall (i.e. could WWE keep USA at #1 or bring much needed eyeballs to FS1?). But when you think about all of the C-level programming that WWE has thrown out there (Main Event, Saturday Morning Slam, WWE Superstars) that has came & went without the hosts renewing, that's relevant that there's clearly only an appetite for the top-tier of wrestling programming (Raw & Smackdown). It's far from a given that WWE is just guaranteed to triple rates. It's all about number of bidders and what the real deals being offered are. Also, very importantly, WWE wants new rebroadcast rights for their shows so they can start putting new content on the WWE Network ASAP. As John says, there's no timetable for WWE to announce. As I mention in my article, they did the smart thing and started early so they wouldn't be stuck at the last minute. For awhile I didn't believe WWE was going to delay announcing this deal again because it would hurt the stock but honestly I never thought they would go ahead and launch the WWE Network before they had the TV Rights all tied down. I can't predict what they're doing (or why) without more information about how the negotiations are going. I was told at that coming out of the Annual Shareholder meeting (two weeks ago), WWE told everyone that they shouldn't expect an TV Rights update for the Q1 call (last week). And that's just what happened. So, they've known as since mid-April that the timing for this deal was "slipping", but honestly they always phrased it as "april to may". It's impatient investors who are pushing for the deal to get done because they're sick of not knowing anything and honestly I think some of them feel a bit embarrassed about how crazy their WWE Network projections turned out.

Interesting point. In this case, the only say that NBCU will have is that they offer to a match a competitor (up to a certain point)for whatever WWE gets from a rival bid. But all Raw/Smackdown deals run out as of Sept 2014. I just believe that Vince hates being in the pocket of a single media conglomerate and so he'd want to split the assets because: 1. Smackdown is just not worth as much when it's combined with Raw 2. It gives him future leverage should anything go South But I hear what you're saying. At the very least it gives a place for people to start to stake their claims: Raw+Smackdown: one network or two? Which network(s)? I've said mine - NBCU (Raw) and Viacom (Smackdown). But that's in the absence of anything new in many, many weeks. I'm speculating wildly, but I bet that the issue of rebroadcast rights (when can WWE Network get the content) and cable exclusivity are big points of contention right now. I also wonder how many years they're going to get. It's almost like the larger the multiple (double vs triple) the longer you'd expect them to announce because then the high cost is spread over more years (when presumably the value of this sort of content is supposed to rise).

I've got a new piece about "WWE: Investors Remain Confused how to interpret Domestic TV Rights Negotiation Delays" http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-investors-remain-confused-domestic-tv-rights-negotiation-delays.php

http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwes-q1-conference-call-everything-learned.php

An investor sent me an excerpt from a boutique firm reviewing WWE that said at last Fridays annual shareholder meeting people left believing that there was some"slippage" I timing for the TV deal. They seemed to emphasize that hey won't be announcing a new deal on Thursday. It's not necessarily a bad sign but I highly expect the stock was drop again because investors are skittish and desperate for solid news from WWE.

Three things I've done lately.... http://whatculture.com/wwe/future-domestic-wwe-ppv.php - look at WWE PPV http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-investors-want-learn-thursdays-q1-update.php - thoughts on what WWE investors should ask Thursday Wrestlenomics radio History of WWE TV and Financials 1983-2013: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/04/26/wrestlenomics-radio

Is this going to be on Voices of Wrestling? I only ask as I can access them during the day and listen off the power press player they use (we use the same). Don't think so. At least, that wasn't something I discussed with VOW. They helped me out big time when I started because I didn't have a host, but I haven't been throwing my content up there since I started on BlogTalkRadio. VOW stuff actually sounds good; I'm just enjoying my okay sound quality plus live caller dynamic!

Wrestlenomics Radio - I cover history of WWF TV programming 1983-2013 along with Financials, throw in some great Terry Funk & Stan Hansen & Chris Jericho promos, talk WWE TV negotiations & WWE Network future with callers, go into some #wrestlenomics looking at WWF Star Ratings vs Match length and touch on the WCW Salaries revealed in the WCW Lawsuit! Awesome show. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/04/26/wrestlenomics-radio

He was Hashif Khan in Stampede in 1988.

Here is the draft of the piece I'm going to publish at Whatculture: Like Morris, I am neither an actuarial scientist nor a demographer. So, our interpretations of the data should be taken with a grain of salt. My results were somewhat different from Morris’ due to a difference data set and changes in how we calculated actuarial predictions. Differences in methodology from Morris I also used Social Security Actuarial Life Tables, but my “expected mortality rates” for the age groups were not the same as Morris'. For each wrestler, I calculated what their age would have been as of today. Then, based on gender, I looked up the number of lives (out of 100,000) that were expected to still be alive and converted that to a percentage. His analysis looked at wrestlers who were on 20+ WWF PPVs through 2002. I went with a lower threshold 5+ PPVs expanded through 2013. However, I did not count every single manager or person who was ever in a royal rumble/battle royal. I also relied on some analysis that I completed in 2010 where I looked at 529 WWF wrestlers from 1980 to 2010 Results(Based on how old a wrestler would be as of today, this compares what percentage by age/gender would be expected to have died versus how many actually have.) 25 to 30 years old: 18 alive, 0 dead (actual 0.0%; expected 2.1%) 30 to 35 years old: 41 alive, 1 dead (actual 2.4%; expected 2.7%) 35 to 40 years old: 35 alive, 1 dead (actual 2.8%; expected 3.3%) 40 to 45 years old: 44 alive, 1 dead (actual 8.3%; expected 4.7%) 45 to 50 years old: 29 alive, 4 dead (actual 12.1%; expected 6.3%) 50 to 55 years old: 33 alive, 8 dead (actual 19.5%; expected 8.4%) 55 to 60 years old: 19 alive, 5 dead (actual 20.8%; expected 11.8%) 60 years and older: 23 alive, 5 dead (actual 17.9%; expected 20.6%) Combined Group: 242 alive, 28 dead (actual 10.4%; expected 7.1%) Please note: the calculation of “expected mortality” in each of these age ranges was based on the specific composition of wrestlers by gender/age within the group. (For instance, the 36 wrestlers in the 35 to 40 year old bracket were 27 men, 9 women. 7 would be 35, 10 would be 36, 6 would be 37, 6 would be 38, and 7 would be 39. With a different composition of wrestlers stratified by age and gender, the “expected mortality rate” for this group may be slightly lower or higher.) Similar to Morris, here’s the summary of findings including using the binomial distribution that this is by chance: Analysis by Chris Harrington The 50-55 age group (with 8 deaths: Bam Bam, Brian Adams, John Tenta, Davey Boy Smith, Kerry von Erich, Luna, Bossman, Warrior) has the largest variance from expectations in terms of probability with six heart/drug related deaths. Overall, the rate of deaths among wrestlers examined was about 63% higher than the expected group. Causes of DeathThe breakout of the 28 Wrestling Stars that died in the sample examined: Adrian Adonis: died July 4, 1988 (accident) Andre the Giant: died January 27, 1993 (heart) Kerry von Erich: died Feb 18, 1993 (suicide) Dino Bravo: died March 10, 1993 (murder) The Junkyard Dog: died July 2, 1998 (accident) Rick Rude: died April 20, 1999 (heart) Owen Hart: died May 23, 1999 (accident) Yokozuna: died October 23, 2000 (heart) Davey Boy Smith: died May 18, 2002 (heart) Curt Hennig: died Feb 10, 2003 (drugs) Hawk: died October 19, 2003 (heart) Crash Holly: died November 6, 2003 (suicide) Hercules Hernandez: died March 6, 2004 (heart) The Big Bossman: died September 22, 2004 (heart) Chris Candido: died April 28, 2005 (blood clot) Eddie Guerrero: died November 13, 2005 (heart) John Tenta: died June 7, 2006 (cancer) Bam Bam Bigelow: died January 19, 2007 (heart/drugs) Bad News Brown: died March 6, 2007 (heart) Chris Benoit: died June 24, 2007 (suicide) Brian Adams: died August 13, 2007 (heart) Test: died March 13, 2009 (drugs) Umaga: died December 5, 2009 (heart/drugs) Lance Cade: died August 13, 2010 (drugs) Luna: died August 27, 2010 (drugs) Randy Savage: died May 20, 2011 (heart) Viscera: died Feb 18, 2014 (heart) The Ultimate Warrior: died April 8, 2014 (heart) WWF PPV YEARWe can look at each PPV year for WWF. We’ll compare among our dataset what percentage of the wrestlers we would have expected to have passed away based on age/gender and what percentage actually has: Analysis by Chris Harrington Looking at the specific data, we'll see that 1994 is especially high, not only because there were 9 wrestlers (41% of the 31 wrestlers) from that PPV year that have passed away, but that's greatly above the 9% (about three) that would been expected. Analysis by Chris Harrington Because a wrestler death is "retroactive" in this chart (i.e. if a major PPV star from Wrestlemania I passes away, we'd see the affect from 1985 onwards), it's near impossible to definitively state whether the lower-than-expected trend since 2003 is indicative of a new era, or not. Breakdown of the GroupsLastly, here is the breakdown of the groups. The age in parentheses is the age the wrestler would be today (for purposes of the tables). Deceased are noted by stars around the name. 25-30 Years Old AJ Lee (27.1, F), Alicia Fox (27.8, F), Big E Langston (28.1, M), Cody Rhodes (28.8, M), Dean Ambrose (28.4, M), DH Smith (27.7, M), Drew McIntyre (28.9, M), Eve Torres (29.7, F), Hornswoggle (27.9, M), Jey Uso (28.7, M), Jimmy Uso (28.7, M), JTG (29.4, M), Kaitlyn (27.5, F), Kelly Kelly (27.3, F), Kenny Dykstra (28.1, M), Roman Reigns (28.9, M), Seth Rollins (27.9, M), Zack Ryder (28.9, M) 30-35 Years Old Antonio Cesaro (33.3, M), Ashley (34.9, F), Beth Phoenix (33.4, F), Brian Kendrick (34.9, M), Brie Bella (30.4, F), Brodus Clay (34.2, M), Chris Masters (31.3, M), Damien Sandow (31.7, M), Daniel Bryan (32.9, M), Darren Young (30.5, M), David Otunga (34, M), Dolph Ziggler (33.7, M), Epico (32.1, M), Evan Bourne (31.1, M), Fandango (32.7, M), Heath Slater (30.8, M), Jack Swagger (32.1, M), Jillian Hall (33.6, F), Jimmy Yang (32.9, M), Joey Mercury (34.8, M), John Morrison (34.5, M), Justin Gabriel (33.1, M), Kofi Kingston (32.7, M), **Lance Cade (33.1, M)**, Maria (32.2, F), Maryse (31.2, F), Michael McGillicutty (34.6, M), Michelle McCool (34.2, F), Mickie James (34.6, F), Natalya (31.9, F), Paul London (34, M), Primo Colon (31.3, M), Randy Orton (34.1, M), Rene Dupree (30.3, M), Ryback (32.4, M), Shad (33.3, M), Sin Cara (31.3, M), Ted DiBiase Jr (31.4, M), The Miz (33.5, M), Trevor Murdoch (33.6, M), Tyson Kidd (33.8, M), Wade Barrett (33.7, M) 35-40 Yeards Old Alberto Del Rio (36.9, M), Billy Kidman (39.9, M), Bobby Lashley (37.8, M), Brock Lesnar (36.8, M), Candice Michelle (35.6, F), Carlito (35.2, M), CM Punk (35.5, M), Danny Basham (36.5, M), Elijah Burke (35.9, M), Ezekiel Jackson (36, M), Gail Kim (37.2, F), Hurricane Helms (39.8, M), Jamie Noble (37.3, M), Jeff Hardy (36.6, M), John Cena (37, M), Layla (36.8, F), Lita (39, F), Matt Hardy (39.6, M), Maven (37.4, M), Melina (35.1, F), Molly Holly (36.6, F), Mr Kennedy (38.1, M), MVP (37.5, M), Nick Dinsmore (38.3, M), Rey Mysterio (39.4, M), Rhyno (38.5, M), Rob Conway (39.4, M), Santino Marella (35.1, M), Sheamus (36.2, M), Shelton Benjamin (38.8, M), Sylvain Grenier (37.1, M), Tamina Snuka (36.3, F), **Test (39.1, M)**, Titus O'Neil (37, M), Torrie Wilson (38.7, F), Trish Stratus (38.3, F) 40-45 Years Old Ahmed Johnson (43.9, M), Brian Christopher (42.3, M), Bubba Ray Dudley (42.8, M), Charlie Haas (42.1, M), Chavo Guerrero Jr (43.5, M), **Chris Candido (42.1, M)**, Chris Jericho (43.4, M), Christian (40.4, M), Chuck Palumbo (42.9, M), Chyna (43.3, F), **Crash Holly (42.7, M)**, Dawn Marie (43.5, F), D-Lo Brown (43.5, M), Doug Basham (41.9, M), D-Von Dudley (41.7, M), Edge (40.5, M), Gene Snitsky (44.3, M), Jazz (40.6, F), Jon Heidenreich (41.8, M), Jonathan Coachman (41.7, M), Luther Reigns (42.6, M), Mark Henry (42.9, M), Matt Bloom (41.4, M), Mosh (44.9, M), Nunzio (42.1, M), Rob Van Dam (43.3, M), Ron Killings (42.3, M), Rosey (44, M), Scott Taylor (40.8, M), Sean Waltman (41.8, M), Shane McMahon (44.3, M), Spike Dudley (43.7, M), Stevie Richards (42.4, M), Super Crazy (40.4, M), Tajiri (43.6, M), Taka Michinoku (40.5, M), The Big Show (42.2, M), The Great Khali (41.6, M), The Road Dogg (44.9, M), The Rock (42, M), Thrasher (44.9, M), Tommy Dreamer (43.2, M), Triple H (44.7, M), **Umaga (41.1, M)**, Val Venis (43.1, M), Victoria (43.2, F), **Viscera (42.2, M)**, Vladimir Kozlov (42, M) 45-50 Years Old Batista (45.3, M), Booker T (49.1, M), Bradshaw (47.4, M), Brian Knobbs (50, M), Brian Lee (47.4, M), Bull Buchanan (46.3, M), **Chris Benoit (46.9, M)**, David Heath (45.2, M), Dennis Knight (45.3, M), Dustin Rhodes (45, M), **Eddie Guerrero (46.5, M)**, Glen Jacobs (47, M), Goldberg (47.3, M), Jeff Jarrett (47, M), Jerry Sags (49.8, M), Kurt Angle (45.4, M), Lance Storm (45, M), Mick Foley (48.9, M), **Owen Hart (49, M)**, Perry Saturn (47.5, M), Raven (49.6, M), Rikishi (48.4, M), Sable (46.7, F), Sabu (49.4, M), Savio Vega (49.7, M), Scorpio (48.5, M), Shawn Michaels (48.7, M), Sho Funaki (45.7, M), Steve Austin (49.3, M), Tazz (46.5, M), The Undertaker (49.1, M), William Regal (45.9, M), **Yokozuna (47.6, M)** 50-55 Years Old Al Snow (50.8, M), Animal (54.2, M), **Bam Bam Bigelow (52.6, M)**, Barry Darsow (54.5, M), Bart Gunn (50.3, M), Billy Gunn (50.4, M), Boris Zhukov (54.4, M), **Brian Adams (50, M)**, Bryan Clark (50.1, M), Charles Wright (52.9, M), **Davey Boy Smith (51.4, M)**, Dean Malenko (53.7, M), Don Harris (52.5, M), Hardcore Holly (51.2, M), Ivory (52.4, F), Jacqueline (50.3, F), Jacques Rougeau (53.9, M), **John Tenta (50.8, M)**, Ken Shamrock (50.2, M), **Kerry von Erich (54.2, M)**, Kevin Nash (54.8, M), **Luna (52.3, F)**, Marc Mero (50.8, M), Mark Canterbury (50.1, M), Marty Jannetty (52.2, M), Mike Enos (50.9, M), One Man Gang (54.2, M), Pat Tanaka (52.7, M), Paul Roma (54, M), Rick Steiner (53.1, M), Ron Harris (52.5, M), Samu (50.9, M), Scott Steiner (51.7, M), Sid Vicious (53.8, M), Steve Blackman (50.6, M), Tatanka (52.9, M), **The Big Bossman (51, M)**, **The Ultimate Warrior (54.8, M)**, The Warlord (52.1, M), Tom Prichard (54.7, M), Virgil (51.9, M) 55-60 Years Old **Adrian Adonis (59.6, M)**, Bret Hart (56.8, M), Brutus Beefcake (57, M), **Curt Hennig (56.1, M)**, Fit Finlay (55.5, M), Fred Ottman (57.7, M), Haku (55.2, M), **Hawk (57.2, M)**, **Hercules Hernandez (58, M)**, Jake Roberts (58.9, M), Jim Neidhart (59.2, M), King Kong Bundy (56.5, M), Koko B Ware (56.8, M), Lex Luger (55.9, M), Mike Rotundo (56.1, M), Raymond Rougeau (59.2, M), Rick Martel (58.1, M), **Rick Rude (55.4, M)**, Ron Simmons (55.9, M), Scott Hall (55.5, M), The Barbarian (55.6, M), The Dynamite Kid (55.4, M), Vader (58.9, M), Wayne Bloom (56.1, M) 60 Yeards Old and Above **Andre the Giant (67.9, M)**, **Bad News Brown (70.5, M)**, Bill Eadie (66.3, M), Butch Miller (69.5, M), **Dino Bravo (65.7, M)**, Don Muraco (64.6, M), Dusty Rhodes (68.5, M), Greg Valentine (62.6, M), Harley Race (71, M), Hulk Hogan (60.7, M), Jerry Lawler (64.4, M), Jim Duggan (60.3, M), Jimmy Snuka (70.9, M), Luke Williams (67.3, M), Nikolai Volkoff (66.5, M), Paul Orndorff (64.5, M), **Randy Savage (61.4, M)**, Ric Flair (65.2, M), Ricky Steamboat (61.1, M), Roddy Piper (60, M), Sgt Slaughter (65.6, M), Ted DiBiase (60.3, M), Terry Funk (69.8, M), The Honky Tonk Man (61.2, M), The Iron Sheik (71.1, M), **The Junkyard Dog (61.4, M)**, Tito Santana (60.9, M), Vince McMahon (68.7, M) Lingering QuestionsThere's a lot of unanswered questions about how best to compare wrestler death against the general population. Should we compare against other sports? (At least one analyst looked at Football players and mortality and declared the result "not statistically significant.) Are wrestler deaths more likely to due drug & alcohol problems, steroid abuse, frequent concussions, year-round & non-stop schedule? Are there issues with undiagnosed mental illness and alienation? With WWE's new wellness policy in place, will we continue to see higher than expected mortality among what would be 50 to 55 year olds? I don't claim to have the answers. A larger study that I did a few years ago, found that 11% of the prominent wrestlers from 1980 to 2010 had died. 70% had passed away before age 50 and more than half of them were due to heart problems or drug overdoses. I also looked proximity of when the wrestler was in the WWF and when they died and found that during 1990-1994 over a fifth of the prominent wrestlers who died from that period passed away just 8.5 years after 1994 which was more wrestlers in a shorter time period as compared to previous (1980-1984, 1985-1989) and later (1995-1999, 2000-2004) timeframes. Let's hope that for the sake of these wrestlers, their fans, and the friends & family that care deeply about these people, the epidemic of young wrestler deaths can be halted.

WCW @ Jacksonville, FL - Veterans Memorial Coliseum - August 15, 1992 (6,580; 4,000 paid): Scotty Flamingo defeated Michael Hayes WCW @ Birmingham, England - NEC - March 12, 1993 (10,500): Michael Hayes defeated Scotty Flamingo